Nearly a decade ago, three friends in Sitka, Alaska spent their summer swimming in the sea. These swims inspired the Selkie Zine, a publication addressing ideas of womanhood, femininity and our relationship with the land in the context of climate change. Initially conceived as a platform to share their diverse art practices, Selkie Zine has since evolved into a haven for exploring new ideas and fostering inclusivity.
“Over time it became more of a safe space for exploring ideas and asking questions that we didn’t or couldn’t share in other places,” Ellie Schmidt, one of the zine’s editors, said. “Instead of a collection of different people’s work, I guess it feels more like it’s work and ideas made in the spirit of the Selkie Zine — playful, vulnerable and very honest, for better or for worse.”
Published biannually with funding from Patreon subscribers, the inaugural issue surfaced in 2015, shaped by the editors’ (Schmidt, Annika Ord and Berett Wilber) shared experiences of summer swims akin to the mythical selkies portrayed in the film “Song of the Sea.” Now, with the impending release of “Stinky Selkie,” the zine continues fostering communal creativity and self-expression.
In Alaska, an increasing number of people are adopting zine-making as a tool for creative exploration, self-expression, and community connection. For Alex Petkanas and their partner, Chava, the couple behind Anchorage’s Year Round Queer zine, the foundation of community support was already firmly in place.
“This project has just provided another excuse to dress up, get together and celebrate our work, and we are so grateful to be able to coordinate that,” Petkanas said.
Just over one year ago, they launched Year Round Queer, a zine highlighting all types of queer Alaskan artists. The zine was born out of an art show focused on queer resilience, which was in response to anti-trans legislation being introduced in Juneau. The art show at Akela Space spurred such positive feedback, that the couple decided a zine could become a powerful tool for connecting and centering queer Alaskan joy. Petkanas has been a part of numerous zine workshops and events in Alaska, and they’ve noticed Alaska’s zine community is growing, and that we’re even experiencing a “zine renaissance.”
“I remember making zines ten years ago on the East Coast in a way that felt much less connected to a broader culture,” they said. “Now, with workshops at the library and museum, incredible support from other artists and resources like Tent City Press, it feels like entering into the zine community is so accessible. Social media no longer feels like an engaging space, and we have turned more toward hands on community building and slow, handmade media. Zines are so flexible as a tool for earnest communication about a moment in time.”
Zines, also called fanzine or magazine, are self-published booklets, usually done in a DIY fashion and reproduced on a printer or a copier. Zines are often distributed on a small scale. Zine origins date back to the 1930s and 40s, when science fiction fans would create self-published content to dive deeper into their fandom. These types of zines grew in popularity in the 60s and 70s with the invention of the copy machine and copy shops. With the rise of punk culture in the 1980s and 90s, political zines became more popular.
Meneka Thiru has helped host zine workshops over the last few years through their former job at the Anchorage Public Library. She said she loved seeing people come together to create things.
“I really like how tangible it is,” Thiru said. “I don’t love feeling that so much of my life is spent online, so I really liked making something physical that I could share with others and that exists independently of me in the real world.”
M.K. Thekkumkattil is one of the creators of “In the future there are no hospitals,” a collaborative zine made with a group of queer, trans and Asian care worker writers. For two years, they all wrote about their experiences working as nurses and therapists.
“Zines make people happy, even when they’re about hard things,” they said. “They’re a form of art that gives people permission to play and not take themselves so seriously, and as such, they have such immense power in community building. I’ve been particularly grateful for Alex and Chava of Year Round Queer, and for Meneka, who have done so much work to create zine magic in Anchorage.”
For anyone interested in learning more about “zine magic” in Anchorage, there will be a Zine Thing Flingding — a zine-making event at Seed Lab with 24 hours of workshops, talks and performances scheduled.
“This weekend is all about building a creative space where people can explore the possibilities of what might inspire them to make a zine,” Leah Moss, one of the event organizers, said. “This is for anyone who has ever even been mildly curious about making something you can hold in your hand and mass produce for cheap. We hope that people will see that art is a space for everyone and it is not defined by rigid structures. We hope that people can see self-publishing writing, art, poetry, photography or whatever medium people feel drawn to is not only possible, but it’s really fun and cheap to do. Zines are for everyone, this event is that theory in practice.”
The event is being organized by AK Bookmobile and Seed Lab, which is part of the Anchorage Museum. Jimmy Riordan, Leah Moss, Meneka Thiru, Joe Besl and Julia Bedell are also some of the main organizers for the event. The event is being funded through a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts, with support from the museum.
Riordan has been making self-published zines, comics and other artist publications since about first grade, he said. And he’s still making zines through a small Risograph print and book studio he runs out of the Seed Lab, which he’s been doing everywhere he’s lived since 2007. Riordan said his hope is that this event will build enthusiasm for a future Anchorage Zine Fair, and that people who participate might get involved in the fair.
“I find that people are pretty excited about zines when they come up in conversation,” Riordan said. “And I’d like to believe there is a growing interest in them. I feel like this event is intended to learn more about what sort of zine community exists in town and to celebrate it.”
Some of the organizers were exposed to zines from an early age, like Julia Bedell, who grew up in a creative community in New York City. It wasn’t until her 20s though when she started to learn about the radical history and purpose behind zine-making. She didn’t start making zines until moving to Anchorage just a few years ago.
“I’ve been extremely impressed with the Anchorage creative scene. One thing that I love about zines as a medium is how they exist outside of typical art-world gatekeeping,” Bedell said.
The Zine Thing Flingding event is free and open to the public and does not require any previous knowledge or experience with zines. The event is also designed for all ages and to be family-friendly. There are 24 hours of scheduled zine-making events from local artists and writers who will teach techniques, lead activities and help participants make original artwork. See the museum’s website for a full list of scheduled events. Workshops, performances and other activities open to the public from 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. on Friday, and 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturday.
“This event is a great way to open the door to artmaking by people who haven’t yet considered themselves to be artists, or perhaps haven’t yet found a space in which they felt included,” Bedell said. “We all have a story to tell.”
Victoria Petersen is an Anchorage-based freelance journalist covering food, culture and climate.